US, China join climate deal in ‘turning point’ for planet

The U.S. and China have also been discussing a global agreement on aviation emissions, though there’s disagreement about what obligations developing countries should face in the first years.

Opening his final trip to Asia, President Barack Obama is expected to join Chinese leader Xi Jinping in announcing their countries are formally taking part in a historic global climate deal.

The United States and China formally joined the Paris climate deal.

“I have said many times that green mountains and clear water are as good as mountains of gold and silver”.

“This is not a fight that any one country, no matter how powerful, can take alone”, Obama told reporters.

China is responsible for about 25 per cent of global carbon emissions, with the United States in second place on about 15 per cent, making their efforts crucial in the fight against warming.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is a strong supporter of the pact, but her Republican counterpart Donald Trump has dismissed man-made climate change as a hoax and says he will abandon the Paris agreement if elected.

“Now, by formally joining the Paris Agreement, you have added powerful momentum to the drive for the Agreement to enter into force this year”, the United Nations chief said in a ceremony, in which he received the legal instruments for joining the Paris Agreement from the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters. The event will also provide an opportunity to other countries to publicly commit to the agreement before the end of 2016. China and the USA together are responsible for around 40 per cent of the world’s emissions so their ratification of the global legal document is viewed crucial.

Members of China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee adopted “the proposal to review and ratify the Paris Agreement” on Saturday morning at the end of a week-long session.This is a big step towards turning the Paris climate agreement into reality. To come into effect, 55 nations together responsible for at least 55 per cent of global emissions must ratify.

When the White House official insisted the US would set the rules for its own leader, her Chinese counterpart shot back. The two countries have made little progress reconciling their differences over human rights and Chinese cyber spying, issues the White House said Obama planned to raise.

“We hope that our willingness to work together on this issue will inspire greater ambition and greater action around the world”, Mr. Obama said.

Obama, attending his last gathering of the world’s 20 major economies before stepping down in January, wants to stress the urgency of curbing global climate change and to urge other leaders to use fiscal policy to boost economic growth.

The US aide insisted that the journalists be allowed to stand behind a rope line, and they were able to record the interaction and Obama’s arrival uninterrupted, typical practice for US press travelling with the president.